another "if you have only one flashlight" thread -- this time while hiking

Here's the scenario. You're going out for a dayhike but you never know what can happen and you want to be prepared if you have to hike during the night or camp out.

It is not unheard of to have to survive two or three days in the wilderness, awaiting rescue, if something does happen.

With that in mind:


1. What is the one flashlight you bring with you?

2. What accessory do you bring? An extra battery, lamp, etc.?

I'm torn. I think the U60 or U2 would be excellent, but there is the need for throw (what's that making that noise over there???) that would dictate an A2.

OTOH, an A2 doesn't have enough ooommph on the LED side of things to really hike in complete darkness, I am afraid.

What are your thoughts?

Re: another "if you have only one flashlight" thread -- this time while hiking

cognitivefun said:

Here's the scenario. You're going out for a dayhike but you never know what can happen and you want to be prepared if you have to hike during the night or camp out.

It is not unheard of to have to survive two or three days in the wilderness, awaiting rescue, if something does happen.

With that in mind:


1. What is the one flashlight you bring with you?

2. What accessory do you bring? An extra battery, lamp, etc.?

I'm torn. I think the U60 or U2 would be excellent, but there is the need for throw (what's that making that noise over there???) that would dictate an A2.

OTOH, an A2 doesn't have enough ooommph on the LED side of things to really hike in complete darkness, I am afraid.

What are your thoughts?

Click to expand...

For an emergency situation (lost in the wilderness, like ive already experienced in the past), you need long runtime even on high settings, this would leave any Surefire out of my selection. I'd probably pick an Inova 24/7 with an extra CR123, this would be enough to cover for more than 3 nights with no eletricity.

BTW, throw is useless in this scenario, believe me. You'd want maximum flood with decent brightness to iluminate the area surrounding you, that's by far the most important thing.

Re: another "if you have only one flashlight" thread -- this time while hiking

i have gone for quite a few night hikes with my A2 and i can say with 100%certainty that it is more than enough light for hiking on low. the less light you have the more effective those little leds are. granted i have the white led model so i cannot comment on the colored led models. however don't let the 3 lumen rated output scare you off it really is brighter than it sounds.

Re: another "if you have only one flashlight" thread -- this time while hiking

I would still take the U2 with extra 123's..

Re: another "if you have only one flashlight" thread -- this time while hiking

My Eternalight Ergo Xray. Long battery life, and the SOS feature would come in handy if I needed to be rescued.

Re: another "if you have only one flashlight" thread -- this time while hiking

While I would like to pick a hand light, like the Streamlight 4AA Lux,,,

I have to go with a Headlamp, the Stenlight headlamp. www.stenlight.com
Its really important to be able to have your hands free,
especially the places I hike, you are pulling yourself up very steep banks,
you need you hands to steady yourself etc.

Plus the Stenlight has 4 brightness levels,
the lowest setting is plenty to walk by at night, and will last several days.

~John

Re: another "if you have only one flashlight" thread -- this time while hiking

I wouldn't carry a flashlight as my only light while hiking. A Tikka XP headlamp would be my choice of a light. Hands free use so I could use my hiking poles.

Re: another "if you have only one flashlight" thread -- this time while hiking

I don't have a U2 but I understand it's wonderful.
I do have an L2 which is my regular camping light. It IS wonderful for outdoors work.
Princeton Tec EOS headlamp.
On the opposite end (very small, very cheap) River Rock 2xAAA is also worth considering. It won't act as a searchlight but you would be able to find your way around in darkness and it has a very good runtime.

Re: another "if you have only one flashlight" thread -- this time while hiking

Six weeks ago I hiked Mt Whitney....starting at 1:30AM...darkness!

Yep that is what's required to do the complete 22 mile roundtrip in a single day up and down the hightest Mountain in the continental USA. (Permit is only good for 24hrs)

We turned off our headlamps at 5:30AM, mine was a Black Diamond with two 5mm LED's and a Luxeon for higher power. You can switch between them.

The two 5mm white LEDs did just fine for 90% of the time, but I REALLY wish I had also taken a decent Incandescent light with some throw. The LEDs have a bluish cast that shifts my viewing of color and because it doesn't have the throw we missed a few marks on the trail. We had to stop and double back a couple of hundred yards more than once to see trail blazes on trees that were 10-15 yards away. I found them after switching to the High powered Luxeon but personally I believe they would have shown up better if we had incandescent. I did have a Streamlight TT-1L the Incandescent actually performed fairly well.

So from my recent experience I would say take a small led light (Headlight?) and an incandescent like an Surefire E2e.

Actually a Surefire A2 would have MORE than enough umfp to get you through! Both Incandescent AND LED! If you wanted to go cheaper, get TT-2L.

Re: another "if you have only one flashlight" thread -- this time while hiking

I personally would choose that crystal that Gandolf put on top of his walking stick to get through Moria.......:candle:

If that wasn't available, then I might reach for the A2.

Re: another "if you have only one flashlight" thread -- this time while hiking

My 8AA nFlex WX1S LuxeonV "2D Mag" mod!
Great flood combined with a large and long throwing hotspot with 8 current regulated outputs. Run it on low for general walking around and 30 hours of runtime. Press and hold for increased levels for up to 100 meters of throw when I need it. If I want all flood, remove the head for an even and adjustable output that is pure flood.
Sure, it has some weight and is rather large but if I could only have one, it had better be adjustable output, great throw and perfect flood. The only light that I know of that can do this is a modified LuxeonV flashlight. Many people play around with my lights and like the Matterhorn and Mediterranean...but the big daddy and everyone's favorite is the nFlex WX1S LuxV Mag.
In reality, I would have my Matterhorn, Mediterranean and Mag mod with me... even flashoholics don't travel alone with only one light!

Re: another "if you have only one flashlight" thread -- this time while hiking

Modamags flashlight. On the low setting it's just a really good flashlight but will run for at least 48 hours and high lights up the world.

Re: another "if you have only one flashlight" thread -- this time while hiking

cognitivefun said: "....day hike but you never know what can happen...be prepared if you have to hike during the night or camp out...have to survive two or three days in the wilderness, awaiting rescue, if something does happen...the U60 or U2 would be excellent, but there is the need for throw (what's that making that noise over there???) that would dictate an A2..."

Any of those would be good, but need for throw varies widely depending on where you're hiking. Many eastern locations are never far from trees or foliage, so I don't see the need for huge throw. While the U2 and HDS EDC aren't spotlights, they throw pretty well for most wooded eastern scenarios I'd envision.

Western locations may have longer views and more open space, hence need for more throw.

Whatever light is chosen, IMO is vital it have at least 2 stage output, with more levels better.

The UDS U85 has an advantage of high max output coupled with long runtime at 60 lumens and below, and the smaller size would allow spare batteries in the same volumetric space and weight of a larger light like the U2.

Re: another "if you have only one flashlight" thread -- this time while hiking

Hands down the Surefire U2 with a few extra batteries. In the dark the U2 even on low is enough to navigate and use effectively.

Re: another "if you have only one flashlight" thread -- this time while hiking

Still the EliteMax. Especially under these conditions.

Runtime is huge; will go for days. Dimmable. Signal & SOS mode. Perfect flood beam. Battery strength meter.

AND it floats!

:nana:

Re: another "if you have only one flashlight" thread -- this time while hiking

Princeton tec Apex and an extra set of batteries(might not be needed if I had Lithium AA in it). Runtime on low is ages and is surprisingly useful in total darkness.
Runtime on high is 3.5 hours on NiMh and longer on lithiums.
On high it throws almost like a HDS 60 on high and on low it gives a nice light that is more than enough to navigate by.

This is probably going to be the light I use the most (hours) even if my HDS gets used more times, but usually just a few minutes at the time...

Sverre

Re: another "if you have only one flashlight" thread -- this time while hiking

My vote is for the U2. Pretty versatile light esp for hiking. The beam is more of a flood and creates a wall of light. Throw isnt bad too! Thats what i love about this light, it has excellent sidespill. Dial it down to its lowest setting, which is more than adequate for dark situations, and you have 40 hours of regulated light

Re: another "if you have only one flashlight" thread -- this time while hiking

For hiking, I use the EL Blaster-1R 2D regulated light as it has a very long
runtime and no bulb to blow. Also carry two spare 10000 MAh batteries,
I can go away for over a week without having to source more batteries.

Re: another "if you have only one flashlight" thread -- this time while hiking

I always drop an Ultra G in my pack when I'm outdoors. I EDC my Arc LS anyway, so that's also an option when more light is needed. It's been a while since my last long expedition, but I used to carry a headlamp all the time. Petzl Zoom back when... BD Gemini later on.

Re: another "if you have only one flashlight" thread -- this time while hiking

While I'd concede there are times you want some throw, I think the need for lots of throw is fairly special-purpose. E.g., If I were lost at Volcanoes National Park at night, and for some reason had to move at night, I'd want some reasonable throw -- falling into one of those scalding sinkholes would suck. But generally, I imagine the HDS's throw would be fine. What's more important is loads of runtime, and that means a long-running low-beam. Dark-adjusted eyes will generally do fine with a very low beam, though there are exceptions where you will want something stronger. The thing is, though, imagine getting lost in (say) the grand canyon, when the heat goes up too high for you to move during the day, and moving at night is treacherous due to precipitous drops. I saw this exact scenario in one of those real-life "I survived" programs. The guy went like a week before he was rescued, and the most serious reason he nearly died is because he had no light and couldn't move much at night to find water etc. He needed something he could burn night after night, a couple of lumens probably would have worked fine for dark-adjusted eyes -- and while he probably could have used a higher beam occasionally, there wasn't much need for super throw.

Anyway, I think the HDS fits really nicely here. Not clear the U2's low beam is low enough. A2 doesn't have enough adjustability, and I"m not sure what the runtime is on the LEDs ... but is it enought to burn all night, several nights in a row, in the kind of scenario described above? And when you do need more light, the A2's incandescent is probably often overkill, and sucks juice fast. Frankly, the Gladius is considered a tactical, but the beam variability to a lower beam than the U2 makes it a reasonable choice also, IMO.

Joe